Vietnam has announced a 15-day lockdown commencing the first of April. Fortunately, at this stage it appears as though cashew production and exports will be unaffected, unlike in India where the 3-week lockdown has completely halted the cashew industry.

Raw material flows from Africa are a major concern in the coming months as the pandemic has now reached important cashew growing regions.
Both RCN & Kernel prices have fallen significantly in March due to a lack of demand and confidence. Cashew kernels are now at the lowest FOB level in the last 10 years. This is despite the recent peak in consumer demand triggered by panic buying around the world.

Chinese demand is expected to pick up in April which could mean the record low prices do not hang around for long.
Given the complexity of the cashew supply chain it is sensible to take some additional stock at the current attractive levels in such uncertain times.